Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Hey you guys! So I know it's not the end of the year, but I am sad to say it is the end of this blog... So I wanted to have one last chance to run down how this year is shaping up, Yeti-wise, in the popular culture.

Aaaaaand, we're off!

Movin' Right Along...

FILM:

I shouldn't really start with this one, as there really weren't any yetis in films this year. I guess last year's unprecedented double-header of Goosebumps & Minions might have deterred the Zeitgeist from including yetis in other cinematic efforts.

Most notably: the Harry Potter prequel "Fantastic Beasts" (due next month) has YETI DEARTH, despite Yeti famously spending a year with Gilderoy Lockhart in the novels and actually being canonically one of the Fantastic Beasts in the original booklet. Ahem.

Adding insult to injury, there was supposed to be a "Sasquatch" in the film - some scenes were actually filmed - but the character was ultimately cut.

Here's holding out hope that his paler Himalayan cousin shows up in the sequels, but considering how yeti-ish they made the demiguise (an honorary yeti this year, congrats! - see bottom of post) and how similar the general concept is to last year's Goosebumps where a yeti runs amok after being released from a magical object, the prospects are grim. I'm holding out hope they'll find a way though. Maybe I should start a change.org petition: Put Yeti in the Fantastic Beasts films!

Oh, also... the film of Doctor Strange comes out next month as well, and despite taking place in the Himalayas, and being more fantastical than the other MCU films, I'm pretty sure they didn't put a yeti on it. Come on, people!... Here's a graphic I just now threw together to help get the message out:

TELEVISION:

It's in the sphere of TV (which includes episodic streaming content) that yeti seems to have made an effort to show up in 2016.

The Curious Kitty & Friends - a lovable yeti takes a major side-kick role to the kitty purrtagonist - one of my fav appearances of the year.

So, there's not really anything definitely set yet for yeti, but here are some places to look for him.

Film-wise,

Jonny Quest:
Release date: TBD
Live-action, Robert Rodriguez is directing and co-writing. Probably won't use "Monster in the Monastery" as its source material, but it is meant to be franchise, so who knows?

Uncharted sequels
Release date: TBD
If the upcoming June 2017 film gets expanded into a series, there's a possibility they'll use the yeti plot line from the second game in one of them.

Warcraft sequels
Release date: TBD
If the recently released film gets expanded into a series, it seems possible they'll put the iconic horned yeti in one of them.

Smallfoot
Release date: Spring 2018
Upcoming Warner Bros. kids cartoon - about a kid bigfoot? "Flipping the myth of the Yeti on its head – it is now the hero, a Yeti, who believes humans really do exist."
More info here.

Littlest Bigfoot
Release date: TBD
Based on a just-released children's book by a New York Times best-selling author, this will be an animated film for Fox. The plot is about two 12-year-old girls – one human, one Bigfoot – who work together to keep the hidden Bigfoot world safe. The book is set to already have sequels.

These latter two Bigfoot movies seem to be the only big, high-profile directly yeti-ish things that are actually going to happen in the foreseeable future. So it looks like the zeitgeist is going to be all about Bigfoot moving forward. Sorry, yeti.

Description: Welcome to a world of intrigue, top-secret missions, danger, excitement and unicorns. Welcome to MMI5, the Mythical Monsters Intelligence Agency. Its mission? To protect and serve all mythical monsters around the world. And welcome to its newest recruit, Betty. Not so much a mythical monster, more a regular teenage girl who hangs out with some of the weirdest creatures you can imagine. Thrills, spills, mystery, laughs and friendship all take centre stage in this definitely hairy, not too scary adventure.

And finally... although the designer Sarah Ford doesn't say it explicitly, these look like designs for a yeti in Clash of Clans:

There is a well-known hoax (end of post here) of a fake Clash of Clans yeti so it's nice to see a possible real one coming our way. Or is this an abandoned concept - ? and more fitting for the category that I call....

O WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

Early concept designs for Street Fighter V show a yeti player character being considered. This is my #11 wish for Wish List 2013 NOT BEING GRANTED.

The kids cartoon Rob the Robot never featured a "Yeti Robot", but Jakasatiawan Wirasudibya, who worked on the show, shared this design sketch, implying the idea was considered:

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And finally, there were plans for an "Enchanted Snow Palace" attraction at Disneyland in the late 1970's. It would have featured little animatronic abominable snowmen designed by Imagineer Marc Davis. Source: D23.com

HONORARY YETI OF 2016

Even though it's not even out yet and no one's seen it, I'm calling it now:

The Honorary Yeti of 2016 is:

...the Demiguise from the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them!

Abominable Mention goes to...

1) Moroff from Rogue One

Not sure who/what this guy is yet since the movie's not out until December, but it has its own action figure and it's the most yeti-ish thing going on in Star Wars right now, post-Wampa.

Now I just need a Funko Pop Vinyl version of this guy. Or even a Lego minifig. Santa?

Update: Saw the film and Moroff is not even in the thing. Oh well.

2) ...Monkey from Kubo and the Two Strings (my fav film of the year so far):

3) ...King Louie from The Jungle Book, for no other reason than they made him a Gigantopithecus: